Earlier snowmelt may lead to late season declines in plant productivity and carbon sequestration in Arctic tundra ecosystems
(2022) In Scientific Reports 12(1).- Abstract
Arctic warming is affecting snow cover and soil hydrology, with consequences for carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems. The scarcity of observations in the Arctic has limited our understanding of the impact of covarying environmental drivers on the carbon balance of tundra ecosystems. In this study, we address some of these uncertainties through a novel record of 119 site-years of summer data from eddy covariance towers representing dominant tundra vegetation types located on continuous permafrost in the Arctic. Here we found that earlier snowmelt was associated with more tundra net CO2 sequestration and higher gross primary productivity (GPP) only in June and July, but with lower net carbon sequestration and lower GPP in... (More)
Arctic warming is affecting snow cover and soil hydrology, with consequences for carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems. The scarcity of observations in the Arctic has limited our understanding of the impact of covarying environmental drivers on the carbon balance of tundra ecosystems. In this study, we address some of these uncertainties through a novel record of 119 site-years of summer data from eddy covariance towers representing dominant tundra vegetation types located on continuous permafrost in the Arctic. Here we found that earlier snowmelt was associated with more tundra net CO2 sequestration and higher gross primary productivity (GPP) only in June and July, but with lower net carbon sequestration and lower GPP in August. Although higher evapotranspiration (ET) can result in soil drying with the progression of the summer, we did not find significantly lower soil moisture with earlier snowmelt, nor evidence that water stress affected GPP in the late growing season. Our results suggest that the expected increased CO2 sequestration arising from Arctic warming and the associated increase in growing season length may not materialize if tundra ecosystems are not able to continue sequestering CO2 later in the season.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Scientific Reports
- volume
- 12
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 3986
- publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:35314726
- scopus:85126857135
- ISSN
- 2045-2322
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41598-022-07561-1
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).
- id
- 96be74c7-9c20-41f4-9019-d1ae64016d6f
- date added to LUP
- 2022-04-19 11:01:45
- date last changed
- 2024-04-20 14:39:51
@article{96be74c7-9c20-41f4-9019-d1ae64016d6f,
abstract = {{<p>Arctic warming is affecting snow cover and soil hydrology, with consequences for carbon sequestration in tundra ecosystems. The scarcity of observations in the Arctic has limited our understanding of the impact of covarying environmental drivers on the carbon balance of tundra ecosystems. In this study, we address some of these uncertainties through a novel record of 119 site-years of summer data from eddy covariance towers representing dominant tundra vegetation types located on continuous permafrost in the Arctic. Here we found that earlier snowmelt was associated with more tundra net CO<sub>2</sub> sequestration and higher gross primary productivity (GPP) only in June and July, but with lower net carbon sequestration and lower GPP in August. Although higher evapotranspiration (ET) can result in soil drying with the progression of the summer, we did not find significantly lower soil moisture with earlier snowmelt, nor evidence that water stress affected GPP in the late growing season. Our results suggest that the expected increased CO<sub>2</sub> sequestration arising from Arctic warming and the associated increase in growing season length may not materialize if tundra ecosystems are not able to continue sequestering CO<sub>2</sub> later in the season.</p>}},
author = {{Zona, Donatella and Lafleur, Peter M. and Hufkens, Koen and Bailey, Barbara and Gioli, Beniamino and Burba, George and Goodrich, Jordan P. and Liljedahl, Anna K. and Euskirchen, Eugénie S. and Watts, Jennifer D. and Farina, Mary and Kimball, John S. and Heimann, Martin and Göckede, Mathias and Pallandt, Martijn and Christensen, Torben R. and Mastepanov, Mikhail and López-Blanco, Efrén and Jackowicz-Korczynski, Marcin and Dolman, Albertus J. and Marchesini, Luca Belelli and Commane, Roisin and Wofsy, Steven C. and Miller, Charles E. and Lipson, David A. and Hashemi, Josh and Arndt, Kyle A. and Kutzbach, Lars and Holl, David and Boike, Julia and Wille, Christian and Sachs, Torsten and Kalhori, Aram and Song, Xia and Xu, Xiaofeng and Humphreys, Elyn R. and Koven, Charles D. and Sonnentag, Oliver and Meyer, Gesa and Gosselin, Gabriel H. and Marsh, Philip and Oechel, Walter C.}},
issn = {{2045-2322}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
series = {{Scientific Reports}},
title = {{Earlier snowmelt may lead to late season declines in plant productivity and carbon sequestration in Arctic tundra ecosystems}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-07561-1}},
doi = {{10.1038/s41598-022-07561-1}},
volume = {{12}},
year = {{2022}},
}